Pan American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Patton

345 S.W.2d 854, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 2263
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 27, 1961
DocketNo. 7038
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 345 S.W.2d 854 (Pan American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Patton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pan American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Patton, 345 S.W.2d 854, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 2263 (Tex. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

CHAPMAN, Justice.

This is a workmen’s compensation case. Appellant, Pan American Fire & Casualty Co. seeks reversal of a judgment by the •trial court based upon a jury verdict rendered for Vernon Patton, appellee, for total and permanent disability with the amount to be paid in a lump sum.

The first two points raise respectively •questions of no evidence and the general insufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict of the jury and the judgment of the court.

A careful study of the 211-page statement of facts shows an abundance of evidence to sustain the jury verdict. Prior to the injury for which appellee recovered he had made his living by physical effort. In addition to the testimony of appellee himself and a number of fellow workmen to the effect that he was unable to do work requiring strenuous physical effort after the injury complained about, we have the lengthy and detailed testimony of the examining physician, Dr. Estes. He produced X-rays which he interpreted as showing appellee had sustained a ruptured inter-vertebral disc between the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae. Other doctors did not so interpret the X-rays but the jury obviously believed Dr. Estes and the other witnesses he corroborated and who corroborated him. Appellant’s own medical witness, Dr. Klingensmith testified without objection that Dr. Thomas, the bone and joint medic he turned appellee over to, recommended spinal fusion for correction of his low back trouble. In fact, appellant, while questioning its own witness, Dr. Klingen-smith, elicited the following testimony:

“Q. Did you then call in another doctor? A. Yes, I referred Vernon to Doctor Edward Thomas who is a bone and joint specialist in Amarillo.
“Q. I see. Did you confer with and ■consult with Doctor Thomas concerning his findings ? A. Y es, sir.
“Q. And what was the joint result of your conferences with him as to what he had? A. Well, I turned this condition over to Doctor Thomas because I don’t do that type of work at all. But Doctor Thomas told me that he felt that Vernon had a strain or a sprain of his low back. And from then on he was in charge of the treatment of his back. * * * ”

Then without objection appellee elicited from Dr. Klingensmith the following:

“Q. All right. And, of course, as Mr. Cade has brought out, that you worked jointly with Doctor Thomas on this condition, and as he brought out, you conferred with him on that back condition leaving the actual decisions and whatnot up to Doctor Thomas as to anything to be done to his back, is that correct? A. That’s correct.”
“Q. So, in your joint conferences with Doctor Thomas and you seen him daily, the first thing that you saw Doctor Thomas put him in traction, didn’t you ? A. Y es.
“Q. He kept him in traction some seven or eight days, didn’t he? A. Approximately. I don’t know whether it was five or seven.”
“Q. And you knew that Doctor Thomas on the third trip over there recommended surgery? You knew that, didn’t you? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And, of course, he wouldn’t go in there and do surgery for a strain, would he? A. Dr. Thomas told me that he had a chronic strain or sprain. That was what he told me was wrong with Vernon.”
“Q. What kind of operation was he going to do ? A. A spinal fusion.
[856]*856“Q. All right. And that spinal fusion, you go in there and you fuse those vertebrae together don’t you ? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And that makes your back just as stiff as a poker if the operation is a success, doesn’t it? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And that is just as disabling— in other words, whether it’s a ruptured disc, whether it’s a protruding disc, or whether it’s as you call it a chronic sprain, or whether you call it a dislocated vertebra, and of those, when you have to go in there and do that operation, the disability would be the same, wouldn’t it, when they got through? A. Well, the operation is the same. I mean, I don’t know about the disability. A fusion of the back does not always result in disability.
“Q. Well, to go around on that, Doctor, a lot of it is according to what kind of work a man tries to do, isn’t it? A. Yes.
“Q. In other words, you or I could have a back fusion and would disable us very little, isn’t that correct, because that we don’t do — or I don’t if I can get out of it, I don’t do any heavy work that I can get out of. Isn’t that right? A. That’s right.
“Q. Where, on the other hand, an old boy that has to go out, for instance, and lift a hundred pound sack of cement, say, unload three or four hundred of them off of a truck and has to move fifty gallon drums of oil, do heavy work like that, a stiff back would be several times more disabling to' him than it would to a professional man, wouldn’t it? A. Yes, sir, I assume it would be.”

All this testimony just related was introduced without an objection. In addition to that testimony, Dr. Estes testified to certain tests he made with appellee in his examination in which he said appellee could not fake injury, showing objective symptoms, which he also interpreted as indicating a ruptured intervertebral disc. Without specifically quoting further evidence, the effect of Dr.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Charter Oak Fire Insurance Company v. Adams
488 S.W.2d 548 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1972)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
345 S.W.2d 854, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 2263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pan-american-fire-casualty-co-v-patton-texapp-1961.